Black and Red | Kuroshitsuji | Sebastian Michaelis x OC

The Body

Once again, Thalia was awoken in the middle of the night by Mey-Rin, although this time it was to the sound of her screams cutting through dreams of cake and chocolate, which was only marginally better than having a stranger try to crawl into bed with you.

Only marginally.

"Mey-rin!" Thalia scrambled out of bed and sprinted in the direction of the voice, almost barrelling into Finny and Bard in her haste. Together, the three of them followed the noise downstairs to the castle dungeon where the villagers had imprisoned Barrymore. "Mey-rin, what's wrong?"

The woman was collapsed on the ground in front of the cell, all colour gone from a face gone slack with fear. Thalia knelt down beside her and carefully reached for her shoulder, just as Mey-Rin lifted a trembling index finger and pointed straight ahead. Thalia raised her head and choked on her next breath.

Blood... There was a blood splashed all over the ground inside the prison cell, fresh enough to glisten to the low light of the wall torches.

Lord Barrymore's body was gone.

"What in God's name is going on?!" Ciel and Sebastian had arrived with Angela trailing behind them. A sapphire blue eye glared around the room before landing on the contents of the cell - or lack thereof - with a start. "What...?"

"Master Barrymore!" The maid gasped at the pool of blood staining the stone floor of the dungeon, now drying into grotesque rust red splotches.

Suddenly, there came the sound of someone pounding on the door of the castle. It was raining, and Thalia was confused as to what madman was out in such weather. When the door was flung open, a man stumbled in, breathing hard. "Lord...Lord...Devil Dog..."

There was no need to explain. From outside came a sound like many dogs howling at the sky. Thalia shivered, and not just from the damp cold.

The man led them back to the hillside arena where the rest of the villagers were, and there they found the body of Lord Barrymore, propped against the walls. It was more or less intact, apart from the right arm which had been torn off at the elbow. Eyes that had once watched the world with arrogance had now rolled up into his head, and in the end, his final expression had been one of acute horror.

"Forgive us, Lord Devil Dog!" The villagers were kneeling in front of the body, hands clasped together in profane prayer. "The small, white-haired dog is a good dog..."

"I'm getting so tired of this stupid song," Thalia grumbled under her breath. The chant, the way they were moaning, the looks on their faces, it all reminded her of them. 

"Thalia...you are shaking." 

The woman jerked when she felt something warm land on her shoulders and drape around her body. Sebastian tugged the ends of the blanket firmly around her collar. 

"There," all of a sudden, his lips were right by her ear. "Does that feel better?"

"Uh, yeah. Thank you..." Thalia wrapped the fabric tighter around herself and very deliberately stepped closer to Ciel. Surely no staff member would flaunt their flirtation in front of their employer, especially a young child. 

The munchkin in question glanced from Thalia, to Sebastian, and then back again with a combination of sheer contempt and pity. Then he looked back at Sebastien and jerked his head over to the corpse, an unspoken command evident in the motion.

Obediently, Sebastian walked forward to examine the man's body. Behind us, Angela's eyes fluttered and - as if overcome with distress - she swooned. Thalia barely managed to spin around and catch the woman by the waist before she collapsed in a dead faint.